A Simple Life
by mysticdragon3MD3
Summary: Lina and Zel are retired from being mercenaries. They live in a small village with their 6-year-old daughter.
1. Chapter 1

A Simple Life

Chapter 1: Story Time

Lina looked up towards the ringing bell. The golden chime rung again as the door closed behind the newcomer. During Lina's pause away from her conversation, the little girl at her side took up where she left off.

"50 gold pieces? That charm is worth 100!"

"I'm not paying that much!" The old man across the counter replied.

The child stood on her stool behind the counter, crossing her arms and looking away. "Listen, old man. It's almost my bedtime, so I'm already considering not wasting time with this at all. There will be plenty of people who want it tomorrow." She had already read the man. He was stingy, but still really wanted that item.

He looked to Lina for help. "I believe I was haggling with you, Miss."

Lina just leaned her elbow on the counter and smiled. "Oh, she's doing just fine." She glanced over at the newest occupant of the magic shop. "Hey, Zel."

"Hi, Lina." He smiled, joining her by the spectator edge of the counter.

The old man sighed and turned back to the child. "Alright! ...70."

"90."

"75!"

"Boy, you're stingy, old man... 85!"

"I can't believe I'm haggling with a 6-year-old..." The old man muttered. "80 is all I'm paying-Hey! Where are you going?"

The little girl stopped at the doorway of the shop's back room. She turned and yawned, as she replied. "To bed. It's my bedtime. I'll sell that charm tomorrow."

"But I won't be here tomorrow!"

"Too bad. I know a friend of my mommy's will be in tomorrow, and he'll probably buy it."

"Arg! OK!" The man threw up his hands. "I'll play your 85."

In an instant, the girl bounded back up on top of the stool and made the transaction. "A pleasure doing business with you!" She smiled cutely behind the counter as the old man grumbled his way out of the shop. The door chimed a little loudly as the last customer closed the door.

Zel shook his head, laughing softly.

"That was some good work, Blair!" Lina grinned as she picked her off the stool.

"Thanks, Mommy!" The indigo-haired child hugged her mommy, as she was carried off to the shop's back room.

After locking the door and posting the closed sign, Zel followed.

"That old man was stingy, huh?" Zel heard Blair say, as he walked in.

Lina tucked the quilt up to Blair's chin. "Yeah, he must be a real miser with his money!"

The 2 girls started to giggle.

"Aren't you talking about yourself?" Zel added.

"That's different!" both sets of ruby eyes glared back.

Zel only smirked and raised an amused eyebrow, before turning to put away his sword.

Lina settled down on the couch, within Zel's embrace. He adjusted accordingly, helping her to hold the book in her hand. The fireplace in front of them crackled with orange light.

"So, Zel..." Lina turned a page of the book.

"Hm?" Zel's chin vibrated a bit on her shoulder with the inquisitive hum. He continued to read, waiting for Lina to continue.

"Anything happen during your lessons today?"

"Lina, my students can't be attacked by monsters everyday." Zel smiled, knowingly.

"Oh, ratz. So there really aren't any more monsters in the forests around here lately."

"Well, the way you fried their den the last time they interrupted my sword lessons, it's hard to believe otherwise."

"I'M BORED!"

Zel and Lina stared wide-eyed at the little girl.

"You're supposed to be in bed, Blair." Zel leaned back on the couch.

"I know, Daddy." Blair climbed onto the couch. "But I can't sleep! And it's so boring staring at the dark!"

Zel sighed, but still smiled.

Blair somehow hopped onto her parents. "So tell me a story. Please, please, pleeeazzzeeee!"

"Ohkay." Lina closed the book and placed it aside. "Once upon a time..."

The little bundle called Blair sat attentively.

Zel gave her a pillow to lie on.

"...There was a beautiful and powerful sorcery genius, named Lina."

"That's your name, Mommy!" Blair proudly declared her discovery.

"That's right. I'm going to be the hero of this story. Now, aside from being beautiful and brilliant, Lina was righteous! She punished bandits everywhere she went, and saved many towns from them. -What are you laughing at, Zel?"

"Oh, nothing. Continue."

"Hrrrmph...! Anyway. One day, after recovering some treasure, which was too good for the bandits that stole it, Lina met up with a stranger who was waaaaaay too smug and always made cheap shots to insult innocent girls who didn't deserve it."

"Ooohhh! He sounds annoying!"

"And that he was, Blair! -OUCH! Zel! What did you pinch me for?- So, Blair. On the day Lina met this stranger he was trying very badly to not be suspicious. So when he wanted to buy a statue she had-"

"-stolen." Zel smirked.

"Stop it, Zel! She took it from bandits, so it was OK! Remember that, Blair."

"OK, Mommy!" Blair smiled.

"Lina, don't tell her things like that!"

Lina stuck out her tongue. "Well, as it turned out, when Lina didn't want to sell him the statue, he went so far as to kidnap her, and force her to give it to him."

"For free? That's really stingy!" Blair again practiced her limited, 6-year-old vocabulary.

Lina nodded in response. "Apparently, this stranger didn't think like Lina: She only did bad things to bandits, and he thought it was OK to kidnap girls."

"Now you're messing up the story." Zel interrupted.

"No, I'm not!"

"You know this story, Daddy?"

"As a matter of fact, Blair, I do."

Blair now turned her full attention to Zel.

Lina turned on his smiling, arrogant face and mumbled. "Cunning bast-"

"Shh. You'll ruin the story. Actually, Blair, what happened was that the statue was verrrrry important to this stranger. So it was OK to do whatever was necessary to get the statue."

"No, it's not!" Lina protested.

Zel ignored her, and continued explaining to Blair. "Like the way you haggled with that customer."

"You mean, how I lied about a friend of mommy's coming tomorrow to buy that charm?"

"That's right."

"Now who's telling her things they shouldn't?"

Zel only gave Lina a look, before continuing. "Being the tricky thing she was, Lina hid the statue. So even though the stranger went through all that trouble of kidnapping her, to make sure to have the statue, and get this business over with-"

"-she outsmarted him." Lina smiled.

"But!" Zel nodded once towards Blair's mommy. "The stranger figured out very quickly that Lina had given the statue to a friend of hers to hide. Lina looked _very_ surprised, and caught completely off guard."

"Was not!"

"Mommy? She wasn't? What did she really do?"

"Lina decided to bide her time, and wait until the stranger was asleep, for when she'd try to escape."

"-But when the stranger checked on her in the middle of the night..." Zel added.

"Did he catch her trying to escape?" Blair clutched her pillow.

"No." Zel replied, as Lina got annoyed. "She was asleep."

Lina started up again. "The stranger rudely awakened our heroine! He scared her half to death by swiping his sword at her!"

"Woah!" Blair's eyes grew wide.

"Mm-hm! He was _very_ rude."

"But he was really aiming for the rope tying her up." Zel completed before Lina could keep going. "He even gave her back her cape and sword. Then, he helped her escape. The stranger realized that now was the perfect time to run off and get the statue for himself, before the evil priest, who the stranger was forced to work for, asked him for the statue."

Blair "oh"'ed. "So the stranger only did bad things because the evil priest forced him too?"

"That's right, Blair. He needed the statue to free himself. That's why it was so important to him."

"Did Lina give the stranger the statue?"

"Hmm..." Zel looked at Lina. "Sort of. She helped him get rid of the evil priest."

"Then he was free?"

"Yes." Zel smile fondly at Lina for a while.

Lina thanked the orange fire-light for hiding her blush.

"So then what happened?" Blair chirped.

"Well, the stranger started traveling with the sorceress for a long time, and eventually, they became partners. The best in the mercenary business."

"Wow! That's cool!" Blair squeezed her pillow.

"Alright, Blair. You got your story, now off to bed with you." Zel finished.

"Ohhhh...oh-kay..." Blair slipped off the couch. "'Night, Mommy. 'Night, Daddy." The child reached up and pecked her parents on their cheeks, before scurrying off.

The fireplace crackled slightly softer.

Lina leaned back into Zel, watching the flames, with a serene smile.

He wrapped his arms around her, and again, rested his chin on her shoulder.

She closed her eyes, still smiling, and whispered in his ear, "...and they lived *very* happily ever after."


	2. Chapter 2

6/13/00

Shopping Day

"Ooohhhh... He's so cute..."

"Yeah...He sure is..."

Another girl came to join the already growing group of ladies watching by the sidelines of the fencing area. Either unaware or jaded to their ogling, Zel instructed a new student on proper sword handling, as other students dashed back and forth across the pounded dirt arena.

"I wish I could take sword instruction from him..." One of the girls sighed.

"So why don't you?" A little girl came up and asked.

"Why? How is a lady like me supposed to do something as rough as swordplay?"

The little girl hmphed and crawled through the wooden fence barring the ladies from the fencing arena. As if tuned to the sound of her little feet, Zel turned and smiled. The girls leaning on the fence sighed and practically lost consciousness.

"Daddy! Daddy!" Blair ran up to Zel.

"Hi, Blair." Zel smiled, picking up the child.

Some of the girls conscious enough to hear this ran away crying.

"Daddy, what's with all those weird ladies at the fence?"

"Pay no attention to them, Blair. That's what I always do. So, what are you doing here?"

"Because Mommy can't leave the shop, she told me that she wanted me to come here so that I could tell you that we have to buy groceries today."

"That's a mouthful, Blair. Alright. When the lessons are over we'll go shopping."

"Oh! Oh! Can we buy candy?"

"Sure, Blair." Zel set her down. "But first, I have to finish teaching."

"OK." Blair sat down on a log discarded from a nearby wood pile and watched the practice scuffles, and clang of swords from the more advanced students. She pulled out a piece of dried fruit from her skirt pockets and munched happily. -Until about a minute later when her appetite had completely emptied her pockets. "*gulp* That's funny...? I thought I filled all my pockets really big today... Daddy?"

"Hold on a minute, Cye." Zel turned from a student. "What is it, Blair?"

"Can I play too?"

Zel smiled. "OK. Get a wooden sword over there and you can copy what I tell Cye."

"Yay!" Blair jumped up and ran back with a practice sword. "Can I fight Cye when we're done."

"I don't know, Blair," Zel's face was stricken with apprehension. "He's been training for a while now, and you've just started..."

Blair began to either hold her breath or be on the verge of tears...one couldn't quite tell with her.

Zel waved his hands, dismissing his former statement. He quickly added, "Um, how about if I see how you do first, then decide whether you should fight or not. Is that alright?"

"Ummm..." Blair looked up. "OK."

Zel breathed a sigh of relief. "Good." But still, there was that fatherly apprehension.

"WHA-AHHH! *oof*!"  
>"YAAAYYY! I WIN! I WIN!" Blair jumped up and down, still holding her wooden sword.<p>

Cye tried to get up from the dust.

Zel shook his head, trying not to laugh. "I think the lessons are over now."

"Are we going shopping?"

Zel nodded. "Put your sword away first, Blair."

Zel scooped up his little girl, with one arm, the other, through the hoop of a basket filled with produce. As they walked away from the fruit merchant, Zel handed her a large strawberry.

"Hey, Daddy...What did that lady selling the fruit mean by 'You could have anything else of hers with her compliments'?" Blair chomped on the strawberry, waiting for an answer.

Zel gulped and started turning a little scarlet. "Nothing. Blair, was there anything in particular your mom wanted us to buy?"

"Oh! Oh! Pie! She said she wanted pie!"

"Heh-heh. Figures..."

"And bread and cheese and sausage and chocolate and-"

"Your mommy didn't say that last one, did she?" Zel asked, still carrying her through the marketplace.

"No..." Blair looked down at her berry-juice soaked, little hands. "But she would!"

Zel let out a laugh. "Yes, she would."

Blair looked over the assorted trays in the confection shop. Before she could make a move, Zel suddenly turned around from his conversation with the merchant.

"I said, only one, Blair." He warned.

"Oh, but, Daddy!"

He just gave her a look.

"Hmph." Blair returned to mentally cataloging the different chocolates for next time.

Zel bent down to her 3 foot height. "Which one did you choose, Blair?"

"Ummm, Daddy?"

"It's still just one, Blair."

"Ohhhh." Blair stuck her tongue out at nothing. "Ummm..." Blair hopped sideways across the displayed goodies. Back and forth, before finally pointing out one piece. "That one!"

The confection shop worker handed the bag of chocolate over the counter to Zel. Blair watched the chocolate being passed, not quite noticing the looks the lady behind the counter gave Zel. She started talking in a strange, slow manner that Blair didn't understand. "And sir, if you'd like anything else of mine-"

"Let's go, Blair!"

"MOMMY! WE'RE HO-OME!" Blair came through the magic shop's door, carrying a pie almost as big as her, covered in a large cloth napkin.

"You don't look so happy to see us, Lina." Zel came in hauling the basket of groceries.

Lina laid her head down on the shop counter. "I just thought you were that new shipment of reprinted spellbooks. I've been waiting all day for those!"

Blair hopped up on her stool behind the counter. "Look, Mommy! We got pie!" Blair's little hands set down the large pastry on the counter.

"You'll feel better once you have some, Lina." Zel commented, putting away his sword.

Lina looked up. "Hm? What's this?" Zel set down a small bag in front of her.

"Chocolate. I heard from a good source that you might want some." He smiled.

Lina smiled back.

"Look, Mommy! I had some too!"

Lina's eyebrow twitched. "I...see that...Blair..." Lina pulled out a napkin and whipped the chocolate and berry juice from Blair's sticky fingers. "Zel, why didn't you have her wash her hands?"

"Daddy and I were too busy running away from the ladies that stared into space when they talked to us. And they blinked their eyes a lot. Like this." Blair smiled and made her eyelashes flutter.

"That's batting your eyelashes, Blair." Lina turned an accusing look to Zel.

"Nothing happened!"

"Tell me, Blair. Did your daddy..."

Zel gulped.

"Turn all red?"

"Yup!"

Lina started cracking up. And soon, Blair followed.

"What's so funny?" Zel demanded of the two girls, as he turned scarlet once again. "One of these days you'll grow up and know what it's like!"

"What do you mean, 'One of these days I'll grow up'!" Lina hollered.

"Lina, you know I meant Blair."

Lina looked down at her little girl, with wavy indigo locks, whose laughing began to calm. "Well of course! _My_ daughter is going to be a real beauty some day!"

Blair only watched with big ruby eyes.

"Honestly..." Zel came over to Lina.

She froze, seeing that evil smile of his, which allowed him to wrap an arm around her waist.

"To think that I meant *you* were not grown up." He whispered in her ear, squeezing her tightly.

Despite his whispering, Blair heard something about her mom being *very* grown up, before Zel lead her mother away to the back. Apparently, Blair had inherited her mother's good sense of hearing, but about the only thing her ears understood or recognized, was that Zel's tone of voice was the same as the strange ladies they were running away from earlier today.

Blair shrugged her shoulders and turned her attention to the pie on the counter.

Long indigo hair fluttered in the wind and gently fell.

"She's the most beautiful girl I've ever seen..."

"She's just so cute..."

Blair stopped swiping her father's old sword and turned her back to the wooden fence. It was the most annoying thing, needing to stop everything to hide her crimson face.

Zel walked by, chuckling.

A bright red still staining her cheeks, she yelled, "I don't see what's so funny, Father!"


	3. Chapter 3

6:31 PM 5/26/2012 spell-checked entry

6/15/00 QUESTION

The first rays of sunlight crept through the cracks in the curtains. Zel opened an eye and turned over in bed.

"Lina?"

"Hmrmphm..."

"Lina?" He whispered again, this time in her ear, and placing a hand on her shoulder.

"...What?"

"It's Sunday."

"So?"

"I don't teach any lessons today."

"So?"

"And today you don't open the shop."

"I know that. Now, let me sleep in." She scrunched the blanket around her head.

"Blair knows this too."

Lina opened her eyes.

"WEEEEEEEEE!"

The door burst open, and little feet propelled Blair into the middle of the bed.

"WAAAAAKE UUH-UP! Mommy! Daddy! Wake up!" Blair continued to shake the bed. She sat still for a moment in the silence, watching the 2 parent-shaped lumps. Her face fixed into an expression of scepticism, and she carefully removed the thick quilt. ...Revealing 2 piles of pillows.

"Gotcha!" Hands griped around Blair.

"AAAH! DIEM WING!" Swirls of wind erupted around Blair, and consequently, around Lina. They were taken up into the air and thrown several feet, before Zel calmly stepped out of the closet and caught them.

He set them down, and watched with a smile as Lina and Blair started their tickle fest.

The magic shop's door chimed open, then shut again.

"Blair," Lina glanced behind her, as the child came back inside. "Grab that plate of bread rolls, OK?" Lina asked, she herself carrying a plate of cooked sausages and eggs.

"OK, Mommy." Blair set down the letter she had just brought in from the courier at their door. She dragged her stool over to the kitchen counter, the wooden legs screeching for a bit against the floor. She stepped atop the seat, grabbed the bread rolls, and followed her mom over to the breakfast table.

Zel set down the last set of utensils and napkins on the table, and picked up the letter Blair had brought in. "Lina, this is from Gourry and Sylphiel." He announced, sitting down.

"What? Really?" Lina set down the serving platter and looked over Zel's shoulder, as he read over the letter.

Blair set down the plate of bread rolls. "Let me see! Let me see!" She hopped over to an empty chair at the table, and stood.

"Looks like Sylphiel is pregnant again." Zel continued scanning the letter.

"Counting those twins from the last time, this would make 3 already." Lina smiled. She turned to Blair. "You remember your Antie Sylphiel and Uncle Gourry, don't you, Blair?"

"Ummmm... I think?"

"Well, you were little at the time, so we'll have to bring you to visit them again soon."

"Um, Mommy?"

"Yes, Blair?"

"What's the letter mean by Auntie Sylphiel being 'pregnant'?"

"That means she's going to have a baby, Blair."

"Oh." Blair sat down.

Zel froze for a moment in his letter reading. He had just heard what Blair asked and did not like where this was going.

"...Mommy?"

"Hm?"

"Where do babies come from?"

Zel mentally smacked his head.

"Uh-uh-ummmm..." Lina stuttered. "Help me out here, Zel!"

But Zel was too busy hiding his beet red face behind the letter.

"You're a real help." Lina muttered. She scratched her head for a moment. "Well, Blair...Um...Babies...they, uh...come from their mommies' tummy."

"Their tummy?" Blair arched an eyebrow, very remenicent of Zel. "Why their tummy? Did they swallow the babies?"

"Oh, no, no, Blair!" Lina waved her hands. The urge she felt to laugh began to loosen the mood.

"So why are the babies in their mommies' tummy?"

"Um..." Now Lina started to turn a little pink.

"Blair." Zel calmly began, as he set down the letter. "Your mother doesn't mean a mommy's stomach, when she means their tummies."

"Huh?"

"She means that in a mommy's tummy, very close to her stomach is a place where babies can grow, until they're ready to come out."

"But how does the baby get in there?"

"Well," Zel tried very hard to control his blush, and _not_ look at Lina. "There's this thing that only grown ups can do, because they're old enough."

"But wha-" Blair almost asked.

"Shh." Lina bent down slightly and started whispering. "It's supposed to be a secret. We're not supposed to be even talking about it. We could get in big trouble already."

"Oh!" Blair started whipering. "Don't worry, Mommy. I won't tell anyone that you or Daddy were talking about it."

"That's good, Blair." Lina smiled in thanks. "And it's better if you don't talk about it anymore until you get old enough. Or you might get caught and in trouble too. OK?"

"OK." Blair smiled that she now knew a grown-up secret.

*SIGH OF RELIEF*

Lina sat down at her seat, and they each took a helping from the serving platters.

Alone in the house/shop, Blair took another book from the shelf. She sat on the floor and opened the big, heavy spellbook.

She had made a promise to herself a long time ago that she would read every book in her mom's magic shop. Then, she would find her mom's secret stash of special spellbooks and read all of them too.

Blair laid down, elbows proping her chin up, over the book's pages. She glanced up at the light coming in from the locked front door of the shop, streaming past the posted "closed" sign.

"Now remember to keep the door locked until we get back." Her mom had reminded.

"How long are they going to take a bath anyway? I wanna go swim in the pond too!"

Zel leaned forward, resting his head on his forearms on the edge of the pond. He opened his eyes to glance up around the surrounding thick forest, then closed them again, listening to Lina splashing around somewhere behind him.

Lina joined him at the edge of the pond, grabbing onto a ledge of earth on Zel's right. "That was a close one at breakfast, huh?"

"Mm-hm." Zel murmured.

"Jeeze. Even when you're fully relaxed you blush!"

The tint in Zel's cheeks slightly deepened.

Lina gazed at the surrounding crowns of foliage. "If only you weren't so damned stubborn, the subject would have been easier to drop."

"What?" Zel's head lifted. "What do you mean, _I_ was stubborn? Blair was the one who kept asking questions."

"Yeah, but she inherited that stubbornness from you, so it's your fault." Lina smiled, closing her eyes and resting her head on her crossed arms.

Zel stared across the pond's edge, at her smug, sleepy smile, with an amused annoyance.

The sound of water rippling on Lina's left, came over to her back, then quieted.

Zel wrapped his arms around her, rested his chin on her shoulder.

"Zel... Was it really 6 years ago?" Lina opened her eyes, watching a fern in front of her glisten in rogue rays of sunlight.

"Yes. It was." He smiled, his eyelids softly shutting too. One hand slid around to her stomach and began to slowly rub the place where their child had been. His hand came to her side, letting his arm gently hold her to him. "Lina?"

"Hm?" She hummed against his skin.

"You never explained that peanutbutter-and-fish craving."

"Oh, shut up." Lina smiled at the old memory. "See? It's just like I said. You kept asking me about that when I was pregnant, and you're still asking me now. Stubborn." Lina ended.

"Though," Zel tightened his arms around her. "Blair wouldn't have started asking the question in the first place, if _you_ weren't so curious."

"I'm curious?" Lina smirked, turning within his arms.

"Very." Zel's smile full of implications.

Shadows came over Blair's reading light. She looked up from the floor and her pile of books, to see sillouettes behind the shop windows' front curtains, which were glowing with sunlight.

"I swear, Zelgadis Greywiers. If I start throwing up every moring in a few days, you're going to get it!" Lina's muffled voice came through. *knock*knock* "Blair, it's your mommy! Let us in!"

Blair left her newly opened book "Priestesses' Ceremonies and Regulations", on the floor, and unlatched the shop door.

"Hi, Blair." Zel smiled down at her.

"Uh, Daddy?" Blair lead him by the hand to her book. "I just started reading this book..." She picked up the thing clumsily, it's vast weight shifting in her small hands. "And I don't understand the first page."

Zel and Lina glanced at the already relatively large (for a 6-year-old) pile of read books, then took a look at the book Blair handed him.

"Let's see..." Zel began reading. "'A priestess must be pure of heart, mind, and body. It is essential that during training, she remain a virgin-' ...!"

Lina uh-oh'ed.

"Yeah, that word! What's a 'virgin'?" 


End file.
